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I applied for a software role at FedEx and was asked to take a personality test

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Re: I applied for a software role at FedEx and was asked to take a personality test

#301

Post by strken »

Eddy_Viscosity2 wrote: post #66
bluefirebrand wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems to me that what you are getting is people who are both decently clever and fairly dishonest. Which is an awful combination to select for, imo

Not clever honest people are taken advantage of Not clever dishonest people can do ok sometimes Clever honest people can be moderately successful, but can always be out-maneuvered by the clever dishonest people, thereby limiting how high they can climb, Clever dishonest people rule the world.

Compulsively dishonest people don't rule the world at all. If you can't resist stealing petty cash from the Burger King till then you'll eventually be found out and slapped down.

99% honest people rule the world because of the sneaky 1% of cases where they cheat and make it count.

Re: I applied for a software role at FedEx and was asked to take a personality test

#302

Post by Alupis »

saagarjha wrote: post #269
Alupis wrote: post #241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are wealthy and poor people all across the country that do or do not participate or relate to any of those named things. You have identified a very specific type of economic class, which has nothing to do with "race" and/or ethnicity. I also doubt Canonical is only seeking people who "summer" in Martha's Vineyard, regardless of their skin color.

Nobody said they were. That was an example to explain how questions like these can be classist.

> That was an example to explain how questions like these can be classist

The op asserted classist == racist in the US. Something I requested elaboration on, and has yet to be offered.

Re: I applied for a software role at FedEx and was asked to take a personality test

#303

Post by bryanrasmussen »

bluefirebrand wrote: post #119
bryanrasmussen wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

maybe I'm cynical but I think it's selecting for moderately or reasonably dishonest, the dishonesty of the median. I think you'd have to be extremely honest to think huh, this is an absolutely bullshit test that if I answer honestly on just this part here means I won't get the job I want (assuming that you are only bad on a single metric) but I am going to answer honestly no matter what. Hmm, but maybe they have that…

> maybe I'm cynical but I think it's selecting for moderately or reasonably dishonest, the dishonesty of the median I feel like that's accurate. After all, I did describe it as "fairly" dishonest, not "very" or "extremely" dishonest. Lying on personality tests is definitely an average, socially expected amount of dishonesty.

OK I had read fairly as being significantly above average, thus my response.

Re: I applied for a software role at FedEx and was asked to take a personality test

#304

Post by smcin »

testless wrote: post #243
smcin wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doing the writing assignment live and on-screen is simply to verify you didn't cheat/impersonate/get help/use AI/plagiarize.

Contract implies they hire a service, thus should not care how it was created, right?

a) Outright cheating in the interview is probably a bad sign about the candidate (whereas the interviewers might be ok with, say, using GenAI, which is increasingly common in many sectors). But impersonating a candidate, or having a friend sit in with you, would always be a bad sign.

b) Not necessarily, some companies would care if their contract writer stole/copied/repurposed/reused content from a competitor/regurgitated copyrighted material. Think also GenAI hallucinations, fabricated citations, etc. But sure, most cost-conscious companies won't give a hoot, so they could probably get by with cutting corners.

Re: I applied for a software role at FedEx and was asked to take a personality test

#305

Post by Alupis »

Macha wrote: post #277
Alupis wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> it feels explicitly classist (which in the US probably means it produces racist outcomes too) Please elaborate...

Way too much emphasis on if you went to the "right" high school or college for something given to people with ten year's experience, interest in those that took a hyper competitive view to niche hobbies in their high school years, why they picked the third level institution they did (economic necessity did not seem likely to be an acceptable answer).

So, what does that have to do with racism?

Re: I applied for a software role at FedEx and was asked to take a personality test

#306

Post by dylan604 »

justinclift wrote: post #299
dylan604 wrote: post #295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

oh, but your pedo joke is perfectly fine then?

But you're literally saying "bedside manner" in a specific situation. If you didn't mean that, then shouldn't you have picked different wording? And note, unlike your behaviour, I didn't call you names. I just pointed out your wording was weird. That's not a personal attack.

I guess if you don't know what a phrase means, there's always the internet to look it up before jumping to conclusions.

https://duckduckgo.com/?va=c&t=ha&q=bedside+manner&ia=web

Re: I applied for a software role at FedEx and was asked to take a personality test

#307

Post by strken »

Brananarchy wrote: post #284
kube-system wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If someone isn't capable of being honest without making their coworkers socially uncomfortable, I don't think the honesty is a redeeming quality.

If a coworker can't handle a woman wearing pants instead of a skirt, can't handle a black person wearing their hair in a way that's comfortable, or can't handle a queer coworker dressing in queer ways... They're the problem. Not the person who's "unconventional". All of those things have been called "unprofessional" as a way to oppress minorities.

Covertly flirting with your female colleague in ambiguous ways after she asked you not to and then pretending you didn't do anything, asking your black colleague if he "knows any rappers", and wearing a dress to a company dress-up party when you are in no way trans then claiming to be "trans until tomorrow" and laughing loudly are also all unprofessional.

Re: I applied for a software role at FedEx and was asked to take a personality test

#308

Post by justinclift »

dylan604 wrote: post #306
justinclift wrote: post #299

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But you're literally saying "bedside manner" in a specific situation. If you didn't mean that, then shouldn't you have picked different wording? And note, unlike your behaviour, I didn't call you names. I just pointed out your wording was weird. That's not a personal attack.

I guess if you don't know what a phrase means, there's always the internet to look it up before jumping to conclusions. https://duckduckgo.com/?va=c&t=ha&q=bedside+manner&ia=web

Interesting. Good point about that phrase for doctors. :)

Re: I applied for a software role at FedEx and was asked to take a personality test

#309

Post by Macha »

Alupis wrote: post #305
Macha wrote: post #277

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Way too much emphasis on if you went to the "right" high school or college for something given to people with ten year's experience, interest in those that took a hyper competitive view to niche hobbies in their high school years, why they picked the third level institution they did (economic necessity did not seem likely to be an acceptable answer).

So, what does that have to do with racism?

In the US the two are intertwined because historical discrimination produced reduced chances for black people to make it into the middle and upper class, and this is a generational effect. Consequentially things that discriminate against the working class will also discriminate against historically discriminated minorities.

Re: I applied for a software role at FedEx and was asked to take a personality test

#310

Post by yvan-eht-nioj »

kemayo wrote: post #224
squeaky-clean wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I interviewed at Burger King in college, the manager told me I was the only applicant in their system to get above 80% on the personality test. It was incredibly easy things like, "How many minutes are acceptable to show up late for your shift? 5 minutes, 15 minutes, 30 minutes, being late is unacceptable". Or "If you knew there were no cameras able to see you, and no other employees around, how much money is okay to…

I took one once (at iZod, I think), which included some tripwire questions. The manager said afterwards that e.g. if you saw "a customer left $0.02 in change on the counter when they left the store, what do you do?" and you picked "I chase them down the block to give it back", that's a sign that you're bullshitting the questions too hard.

Or, someone might also have a sense of karmic justice, whereby $0.02 is the same as $200 in the ethical context of returning a lost object to its owner.

The manager sounds like they'd be happy to steal your wages, as long as it was "only a small amount". You dodged a bullet there.

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